18-WHEELER TOWING A TRAILER WITH TONS OF FERTILIZER FALLS OF THE SPAGHETTI JUNCTION IN NEW ZEALAND
Brendon Greig jokes that he parallel parked his truck and trailer before "hopping out" of the cab.
Realistically he knows the accident was "pretty horrific".
Greig was the driver of the Regal Haulage rig that plunged 15 metres off Spaghetti Junction, landing on the Port Link motorway below early on Sunday morning.
He was en route to Whangarei, a run he'd been doing for the past seven years, when the truck carrying 26 tonnes of fertiliser crashed.
The experienced driver has no memory of the accident and says his first recollection was waking to a paramedic at his window.
The truck had landed the right way up, deploying its airbags, and Greig says he simply hopped out of the rig before being taken to Auckland City Hospital where he'll remain until tomorrow.
Greig escaped with fractured vertebrae in his lower back and some facial bruising.
Speaking from his hospital bed where he has to remain perfectly flat, Greig says he'll be buying a lotto ticket this weekend.
"I knew I'd had an accident but didn't have any clue what had happened," he said.
"It's incredible the force it would have hit (the ground) with. It's pretty much destroyed the truck and trailer. It's too scary to think about how it could have been a massive fatal."
Partner Angela Rotherham says she was shocked when she heard the news and immediately rushed to his bedside from Wellington.
"The nurse called and said he'd an accident but that he was okay."
Investigations into the accident are still ongoing but Regal Haulage director Brett McHardie says early indications are that Greig was doing everything correctly.
Driver manager Alan Pye said Greig wasn't speeding and had had several stops en route that morning.